For Americans, alcohol Prohibition meant that one
couldnt legally go to the local saloon or tavern to have a
drink. Citizens were allowed to keep what was stockpiled prior to
the enactment of the Prohibition amendment, but when supplies ran
out there was no more to be had. For the brewer, distiller, and
saloon owner alike, Prohibition meant ruin (at least on the
outside). Before Prohibition there were approximently 1,400
breweries in the U.S. and 20 in Buffalo. After Prohibition was
repealed 13 years later, only 700 reopened nationally, and only
seven in Buffalo.7

At first everyone thought the alcohol
industry was dead, but it soon became apparent that this was not
the case. Prohibition had sparked "The Second Wave" of
microbreweries as wall as a lively black market trade in alcohol.
Alcohol had become a form of currency for the second time in
American history, being traded for money and favors. These
traders, who were the manufacturers and transporters of the
illegal alcohol, were called "bootleggers." The term
came from smugglers and Indian traders who hid liquor inside
their tall boots and dates back to colonial times in the South.
In 1733, the Georgia Colony had enacted a prohibitive law
regarding alcohol, making it the first dry colony. General James
Ogelthorpe was charged with enforcing this new law, but his
efforts were thwarted by bootleggers from the Carolinas.8

One estimate states that the illicit
alcohol (or bootleg) industry during Prohibition totaled 100
million gallons per year.9The
City of Buffalo, like many other American cities, had its share
of smuggling stories and speakeasies, perhaps more than its
share. According to Buffalo mayor F.X. Schwab in his 1922 annual
state of the city adress there were 8,000 "soft drink"
places where illegal liquor and beer could be obtained and
consumed.With the citys unique geographic position along
the Canadian border, the temptation for smuggling was great.
Unlike the rest of the country Buffalonians could cross the
border to Canada, where liquor was still legal, for a drink if
they wanted to. If they were brave and clever they could smuggle
some back home with them.

Those who chose to smuggle booze came to
be known as "rumrunners," the couriers of the black
market trade. Locally, they sometimes used secret liquor storage
depots along the lakeshore just outside Buffalo to distribute the
booty. These beer dumps were exchange or drop-off points for the
next courier to continue the relay of illicit liquors to the many
"speakeasies" in the area. A "speakeasy" was
an illegal bar, tavern, or any place that secretly served alcohol
during Prohibition. It seemed like every day brought another
exciting chase or seizure of illegal alcohol in the news. In the
Buffalo Courier-Express the following article appeared on
November 1, 1928.

Customs border
patrolmen chased a motorboat a half mile in the little
Niagara River in the La Salle section yesterday before
catching it. The boat was unmanned, an unidentified
rumrunner having leaped overboard, leaving the engine
running, and swam to safety when he realized the boat was
being pursued. Sixty cases of ale, smuggled from the
Canadian side of the river, were recovered from the boat.
the ale and boat were confiscated.

Two other seizures
were made by the border patrolmen on the upper river
yesterday. one was halfway between Buffalo and Tonawanda
where a motorboat with twenty cases of ale and twenty
case of whisky was seized and two men arrested. The other
seizure was off Riverside Park in the Niagara River,
where a motorboat and 65 cases of ale were seized and one
man arrested.

Most of this smuggled liquor and beer was
destined for the speakeasies. In Buffalo a bar presently known as
"Ray Flynn's" (located on Main St. near Goodell St.)
was reputed to have been one. The speakeasies later developed an
image as a hangout for gangsters. During these times, one drank
whatever the speakeasies and bootleggers had to offer, good or
bad.

Beer was not as readily available as
moonshine because beer was harder to make. Despite this fact,
people still managed to produce beer, and although it was not of
the same quality as before Prohibition, it still did the job.Some
people in Erie County even managed to make their own beer at
home. These home-brewers werent experts in chemistry, they
were just average people with a desire for beer.

I was told a story by longtime Buffalo
resident Ed Zdanowski about how on Saturday nights in the 1920's
at their house near Niagara and Amherst Streets his father would
brew beer in their bathtub. He said you couldn't take baths on
that night because his dad had the room all to himself. The beer
made by Eds father probably wasnt like that made by
the big brewers did prior to prohibition, but it was better than
no beer at all.

The onset of Prohibition had sparked
"The Second Wave" of the mini or "micro"
brewery (called "wildcat" breweries by the press). All
it took to make beer was some imagination and a little skill to
build a brewery big enough to do the trick. Some of the
newly-unemployed brewers that still lived in the area built them
and produced what was then called "alley beer." These
microbreweries may not have been very sophisticated, but they
were springing up all across the United States nonetheless. Many
were hidden in old warehouses run by ex-brewers. The quality of
the beers produced was not as high as prior to Prohibition but
people happily put up with it.

From time to time, the authorities would
shut down these clandestine microbreweries. One example was the
Federal raid on Stein's Hotel in Orchard Park, NY just prior to
New Years Day, 1930. The raid netted an undisclosed quantity of
"choice" liquor, and among the catch was Scotch, Rye,
Champagnes, ales, etc.9 The frequency of these raids had reached their
peak by the late 1920s, keeping bootleggers on their toes.
On October 31, 1928 the Courier-Express reported that a
series of raids had occurred on several Buffalo area
"drinkeries."

Federal agents
working under the direction of Dpt. Chief R.E. Langhans
yesterday continued their onslaught on drinkeries in this
district, calling on six places and confiscating
quantities of beer, wine, and liquor.

The largest single
coup was made at the home of Fred C. Gebhard, 62 Fisher
Street. The flying squadron reported to Chief Langhans
the seizure of 149 gallons of wine in barrels, 48 quarts
of wine in bottles, twenty quarts of brandy, one quart of
colored distilled spirits and another quart of white
wine. Mr.& Mrs. Gebhard were cited to appear today
before Commissioner Timerman to explain.

One squad invaded the
county districts and accounted for the seizure of 268
pints and 93 quarts of home brew, twenty gallons of mash
and five gallons of malt syrup in a drinkery on the
Aurora road. Winchester William Seibert received a
summons.

Half a barrel of beer
was seized when the raiders dropped into the Kensington
Inn, 1016-18 Kensington Avenue. John MacMillan and Edward
R. Vone were charged with violating the Prohibition law.

Paul Olah and Albert
Gileart were ordered to appear before commissioner
Timerman today after a search of the drinkery of 144
Dewey Avenue. Agents reported a seizure of 658 pints of
home brew. Margaret Katsmarek also was cited when agents
found a small quantity of colored distilled spirits at
1624 Elmwood Avenue. Charles Ganser, 2113 Seneca Street,
also received a ticket when the agents discovered half a
barrel of beer in his place.

These raids proved to be largely
ineffective and the trade in illegal and unlicensed liquor and
beer continued on even after the repeal of the 18th amendment.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the law,
brewers had to figure out what they were going to do now that it
was illegal to brew beer with more than 1/2 of 1% alcohol by
volume. Their options included: "near beer" (a low
alcohol beer), non-malt beverages (soda pop), fruit juices, yeast
products, vinegar, malt extract, breakfast foods (cereals),
commercial feeding stuffs, dairy products and industrial alcohol.

In Buffalo, Lang's Brewery made
"Hyan-Dry" brand soda, and produced products under
other monikers like "Lang's Dairy" and " Lang's
Beverages." The Broadway Brewing Co., bought in the late
1920's by George F. Stein, produced malt extract. Iroquois
Brewing Co. produced sodas. The Mangus Beck Brewing Co. produced
dairy products. The Lake View Brewing Co. became Lake View
Laboratories. The Christian Feginspan Brewery continued on as a
bottler. Most of Buffalos breweries continued bottling
operations under various names during Prohibition, but not all
resumed brewing operations after repeal. It has been said that
some brewers like Iroquois and Steins had all but one or two of
their vats filled with legal product (less the 1/2% alcohol) and
that the last two tanks were filled with "hi-test"
beer. By doing this they played an odds game with the drys in
hopes these two tanks would not be noticed during routine
inspections of the breweries.

Whatever the brewers did to survive,
legal or illegal, they all had to deal with the developing
concept of the packaged product. Most beer before Prohibition was
sold in draft form, but because many breweries across the country
had switched to soda manufacturing during Prohibition, the soda
produced by these brewers was sold in bottles, exposing a whole
new generation of Americans to this new "packaged"
product. As a result the corner drug store soda fountain was no
longer the only place to get a soda; it was now possible to go to
the store and bring it home in bottled form. The bottling
industry was being developed and improved because of all this new
activity, including advancements in the bottling equipment
itself. By the end of Prohibition, most of the brewers found that
they had obsolete bottling equipment because of the new
technology. Prohibition had produced a fledgling giant; soda pop
in packaged form. In the decades after Prohibition packaged beer
would become the most common form of distribution.

By 1932, all forms of alcohol were still
in great demand. The public wanted their booze, and they were
determined to have it. The tide of Prohibition was once again at
an ebb. Its proponents were tiring from the constant onslaught of
various groups fighting for repeal. The "Noble
Experiment" as Prohibition was called by some was about to
fail. Anti-Prohibition movements such as the Association Against
the Prohibition Amendment, The Moderation League, and others were
beginning to gain momentum toward the repeal of the 18th
Amendment by the mid-1920's. Finally, by December 1933 the
Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution was ratified by the
Twenty-First Amendment and the brewers could at last return to
what they knew best, brewing.